JP4902463B2 - Navigation device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for selectively acquiring a map that is more detailed than a map stored in advance in a navigation device mounted on a vehicle.

  In a navigation device mounted on a vehicle, as a technique for displaying a map, a plurality of map data representing maps having different degrees of detail are stored in advance, and an enlargement rate is determined according to the enlargement rate of the map display designated by the user. There is known a technique for displaying a map using map data representing a map with a greater degree of detail as the value of the value increases (for example, Patent Document 1).

Further, in a navigation device mounted on a vehicle, when a destination is set, there is also a technology for acquiring a map around a destination that is more detailed than a map stored in advance by the navigation device from a server via communication. Known (for example, Patent Document 2).
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-190789 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-230761

  According to the technology described in Patent Document 2, more detailed guidance can be provided around the destination using a detailed map acquired from the server. However, in areas other than the vicinity of the destination where a detailed map is not obtained, such detailed guidance cannot be performed, and thus there are cases where the user's needs cannot be sufficiently met. On the other hand, in a navigation device having only a small-capacity storage device, the amount of detailed maps that can be acquired and stored from the server is naturally limited.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to acquire a detailed map from a server in a navigation apparatus within a range more necessary and sufficient for user needs.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a storage device storing map data representing a map in a navigation device mounted on an automobile, and a detail representing a detailed map that is a more detailed map than the map represented by the map data. The map data is downloaded from the detailed map data server storing the detailed map data via wireless communication and stored in the storage device, and the route to the destination set by the user is used as a guide route Search means for searching, and detailed map acquisition control means for controlling acquisition of the detailed map data using the detailed map data download means, and for each area, the detailed map data of the area is stored in the storage device. Detailed map data presence / absence information indicating whether or not the detailed map data server is accumulated is stored, and the detailed map is acquired. In the means, when the detailed map data presence / absence information indicates that the detailed map data of the area around the destination is stored in the detailed map data server, it is determined whether or not the detailed map data of the area needs to be acquired. When the user is inquired to obtain detailed map data, the detailed map data download means downloads the detailed map data of the area from the detailed map data server and stores it in the storage device. It is made to let you.

  Alternatively, in the detailed map acquisition control means, instead of the operation of the detailed map acquisition control means, the road network around the guidance route is a complex area, and the detailed map data presence / absence information is the detailed map data of the area Is inquired of the user as to whether or not the detailed map data of the area representing that the detailed map data server is stored, and the user is instructed to acquire the detailed map data. The operation of causing the detailed map data download means to execute downloading of data from the detailed map data server and storage in the storage device is performed.

  According to such a navigation device, the user can easily use the detailed map for an area where the user's detailed map needs are large, such as an area around the destination and an area where the road network around the guidance route is complicated. The detailed map data can be acquired from the detailed map data server. In addition, only when detailed map data of such an area exists in the detailed map data server, because the proposal for obtaining the detailed map data and access to the detailed map data server are performed, the user is bothered unintentionally, Efficient detailed map data can be acquired without inadvertent communication with the detailed map data server.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a storage device that stores map data representing a map in a navigation device mounted on an automobile, and a detailed map that is a more detailed map than the map represented by the map data. Detailed map data to be expressed is downloaded from the detailed map data server storing the detailed map data via wireless communication, and stored in the storage device, and a route to the destination set by the user is guided Search means for searching as a route, and detailed map acquisition control means for controlling the acquisition of the detailed map data using the detailed map data download means, wherein in the detailed map acquisition control means, the guidance route of the guidance route The area around the section where the frequency of turning left and right is high when traveling along Inquires the user about the necessity of acquiring detailed map data of the area stored in the detailed map data server, and when the user instructs to acquire the detailed map data, the detailed map of the detailed map data of the area Downloading from a data server and storage in the storage device are executed by the detailed map data download means.

According to such a navigation device, the user can easily obtain a detailed map of a section having a high frequency of right and left turns when traveling along the guidance route, that is, an area around the section where the route is likely to be erroneous. Will be able to.
Each of the navigation devices described above indicates the area on the map represented by the map data when the detailed map acquisition control means inquires the user of the necessity of acquiring the detailed map data of the area. It is also preferable to display the image so that the user can easily and appropriately determine whether or not the detailed map data needs to be acquired.

  As described above, according to the present invention, in the navigation device, a detailed map can be acquired from the server within a more necessary and sufficient range for the user's needs.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 1 shows the configuration of the information system according to this embodiment.
As shown in the figure, the information system includes a navigation device 1 mounted on each vehicle, a WAN 2 that accommodates each navigation device 1 via wireless communication, and map data of a detailed map to each navigation device 1 via the WAN 2. And a map data providing system 3 to be provided.

  Further, the map data providing system 3 is stored in the detailed map database 31 in response to the request from the navigation device 1 and the detailed map database 31 that stores the detailed map data representing the detailed map of the area provided for each area. A detailed map data server 32 for providing detailed map data.

Next, FIG. 2 shows a configuration of the navigation device 1 mounted on each vehicle.
As shown in the figure, the navigation device 1 includes a control device 10, an operation unit 21, a display device 22, a vehicle state sensor 23, a GPS receiver 24, and a mobile communication device called a mobile phone or the like. 25. Here, the vehicle state sensor 23 is a set of various sensors that detect each vehicle state, such as an azimuth sensor such as an angular acceleration sensor or a geomagnetic sensor, or a vehicle speed sensor such as a vehicle speed pulse sensor.

The control device 10 of the navigation device 1 includes a storage device 11 such as a flash memory and a memory card, a current state calculation unit 12, a GUI control unit 13 that controls a GUI using the operation unit 21 and the display device 22, and a route search unit. 14, a memory 15, a control unit 6, a guide image generation unit 17, and a communication control unit 18.
However, the above control device 10 may be a CPU circuit having a general configuration including peripheral devices such as a microprocessor, a memory, and other graphic processors and geometric processors in terms of hardware. In this case, each unit of the control device 10 described above may be realized as a process embodied by a microprocessor executing a program prepared in advance. In this case, such a program may be provided to the control device 10 via a recording medium or an appropriate communication path.

  Now, the storage device 11 of the control device 10 of the navigation device 1 represents a map that is roughly represented rather than the detailed map represented by the detailed map data stored in the detailed map database 31 of the map data providing system 3. Map data and detailed map data presence / absence information are recorded. In addition, the detailed map of the map data providing system 3 is stored in the storage device 11 when the control unit 6 of the control device 10 of the navigation device 1 accesses the detailed map data server 32 via the communication control unit 18 and the wireless communication device 25. Detailed map data downloaded from the database 31 and detailed map data management information for managing the downloaded detailed map data are stored.

  Here, the detailed map data presence / absence information, as shown in FIG. 3a, has entries (each row in the figure) provided corresponding to each area obtained by dividing the geographical range in which the map data represents the map into a plurality of areas. In each entry, an identifier for identifying the corresponding area, the presence / absence of detailed map data indicating whether the detailed map data of the corresponding area is stored in the detailed map database 31 of the map data providing system 3, and The road network complexity indicating whether the road network in the corresponding area is complicated is registered. The road network complexity is determined, for example, by determining that the road network is more complex as the number of intersections or routes increases, based on the number of intersections or routes in the area.

  The detailed map data presence / absence information is created by the creator of the map data or the detailed map data, provided together with the map data, and stored in the storage device 11. Alternatively, the detailed map data presence / absence information may be provided by the map data providing system 3. In this case, the control unit 6 of the control device 10 of the navigation device 1 accesses the detailed map data server 32 via the communication control unit 18 and the wireless communication device 25, so that detailed map data presence / absence information is obtained from the map data providing system 3. Is stored in the storage device 11.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 3b, the detailed map data management information has entries provided corresponding to each of the detailed map data downloaded from the map data providing system 3 and stored in the storage device 11, and each entry includes The identifier of the area of the map represented by the corresponding detailed map data and the detailed map data path indicating the storage position of the corresponding detailed map data on the storage device 11 are stored.

Now, in such a configuration, the current state calculation unit 12 of the navigation device 1 repeatedly performs the following processing.
That is, the current state calculation unit 12 uses the current position estimated from the outputs of the vehicle state sensor 23 and the GPS receiver 24 to determine the current position previously determined by the map data read from the storage device 11 and the detailed map data. Perform map matching processing with the surrounding map and detailed map, etc., the coordinates of the position on the most likely link as the current position and the most likely direction as the current traveling direction as the current position and current traveling direction, respectively Determine and set in the memory 15.

  In addition, the control unit 6 receives a destination setting from the user via the operation unit 21 and the GUI control unit 13 and sets the destination setting in the memory 15. Then, the route search unit 14 is caused to search for a guidance route to the destination. The route search unit 14 reads out map data and detailed map data of a necessary geographical range from the storage device 11, and sets a minimum cost route from the current position set in the memory 15 to the destination, a minimum distance, a minimum time, and the like. A search is made based on each of the plurality of cost models, and the searched route is set as a guide route, and route data of the guide route is set in the memory 15 as guide route data.

In addition, when the current position set in the memory 15 becomes near the destination, the control unit 6 determines that the destination has arrived, and also performs processing for clearing the destination and the guidance route set in the memory 15. .
In addition, the control unit 6 periodically calculates a map display range, and repeatedly performs a process of requesting the guide image generation unit 17 to display a guide image of the calculated map display range on the display screen of the display device 22. Do. In calculating the map display range, the map display range becomes a range around the current position set in the memory 15, and the size of the map represented by the display map scale in which the map display range is set is displayed on the display device 22. This is done by calculating the map display range so that the size matches the screen size.

  When the display map scale is larger than the predetermined scale, the guide image generation section 17 requested to display the guide image from the control section 6 in this way uses the map data stored in the storage device 11. Select as map data. Further, when the display map scale is equal to or smaller than the predetermined scale, if the detailed map data of the area within the map display range is stored in the storage device 11, the detailed map data is selected as the use map data, and the map display is performed. If the detailed map data of the area within the range is not stored in the storage device 11, the map data stored in the storage device 11 is selected as the use map data. The area where the detailed map data is stored in the storage device 11 is obtained from the detailed map data management information.

Then, the map within the map display range indicated by the usage map data is drawn with the display screen size of the display device 22 to generate a map image.
In addition, the guide image generation unit 17 draws the current position set in the memory 15 on the drawn map image, and displays the current position on the display device 22 via the GUI control unit 13 as a guide image. In addition, when the guidance route is set, the guidance image generation unit 17 indicates the guidance route indicated by the guidance route data set in the memory 15 on the map image in the guidance image displayed on the display device 22. Draw a root shape. When the destination is included in the map display range, the destination mark indicating the destination is also drawn in the guide image displayed on the display device 22.

  FIG. 4a shows an example of a guide image displayed on the display screen of the display device 22 when the display map scale is larger than the predetermined scale in this way, and the guide image is the current position indicated by the map data. On the map image 401 representing a rough map of the vicinity, a current position mark 402 representing the current position, a route graphic 403 representing the guidance route within the map display range, and a destination mark 404 representing the destination are displayed on the map image 401. It will be represented in

  Further, FIG. 4B shows the display screen of the display device 22 when the display map scale is not more than the predetermined scale and the detailed map data of the area within the map display range is stored in the storage device 11. In this case, the guide image is displayed on a map image 401 representing a detailed map around the current position indicated by the detailed map data, a current position mark 402 representing the current position, A route graphic 403 representing the guide route within the map display range is displayed. When the destination is included in the map display range, the destination mark indicating the destination is also displayed on the map image 401.

Now, in addition to the above operation, the control unit 6 of the control device 10 of the navigation device 1 performs the detailed map acquisition support process shown in FIG.
Here, this processing is started when the guidance route data is set in the memory 15 and the guidance route is set as described above.
As shown in the drawing, in this detailed map acquisition support process, first, an area around the destination (for example, each area including a point within 1 km from the destination) is set as a candidate area (step) 502). Next, from the surrounding areas of the guide route (for example, each region including an arbitrary point on the guide route), an area having a high road network complexity is extracted with reference to the detailed map data presence / absence information, and candidate areas are extracted. (Step 504). In addition, a peripheral area (for example, each area including an arbitrary point in the section) on the guidance route where the frequency of turning right and left per predetermined distance along the guidance route is equal to or higher than the predetermined frequency is a candidate area. (Step 506).

  Of the candidate areas, the candidate area in which the detailed map data of the area is stored in the detailed map database 31 of the map data providing system 3 and the detailed map data of the area is not stored in the storage device 11. Is set as an acquisition proposal area (step 508). The area where the detailed map data is stored in the detailed map database 31 of the map data providing system 3 is the area where the detailed map data is stored in the storage device 11 based on the presence / absence of the detailed map data in the detailed map data presence / absence information. Can be obtained from the detailed map data management information.

  Next, an area graphic representing each acquisition proposal area on the guide image displayed on the display device 22 is displayed on the display apparatus 22 via the GUI control unit 13 (step 512). The necessity of detailed map data acquisition is received from the user via the GUI control unit 13 (step 512).

  As a result, the area graphic representing the acquisition proposal area is displayed on the guidance image as indicated by 601-603 in FIG. Here, in this example, the area graphic 602 represents an area selected as an acquisition proposal area because it is an area around a section with a high frequency of right and left turns on the guidance route, and the area graphic 603 represents a destination. It represents an area selected as an acquisition proposal area because it is a surrounding area. The area graphic 601 represents a plurality of areas selected as acquisition proposal areas due to the high road network complexity around the guidance route. In this example, the plurality of acquisition proposal areas are consecutive. Therefore, the plurality of acquisition proposal areas are collectively represented by one area graphic 601.

  In addition, as shown in FIG. 6, for example, as shown in FIG. 6, the acquisition of the detailed map data of the acquisition proposed area represented by the area graphic is obtained for each area graphic 601-603. This is done by displaying an operation acceptance window 611-613 for accepting whether or not to do so.

Now, returning to FIG. 5, if the user instructs that detailed map data acquisition is unnecessary for all acquisition proposal areas (step 514), the display of the area graphic is deleted (step 520), and the process is terminated. To do.
On the other hand, if the user gives an instruction to acquire detailed map data for any acquisition proposal area (step 516), the detailed map data for the acquisition proposal area instructed to be acquired is sent to the communication control unit 18, The detailed map data server 32 is accessed via the wireless communication device 25 to download from the detailed map database 31 of the map data providing system 3 and store it in the storage device 11 (step 518). Then, the display of the area graphic is erased (step 520), and the process ends.

The embodiment of the present invention has been described above.
In the above embodiment, the detailed map database 31 of the map data providing system 3 further stores a tourist map and an underground street map of each area, and the navigation device 1 stores the tourist map of each area in the detailed map data presence / absence information. In addition, the detailed map database 31 of the map data providing system 3 registers and manages the presence / absence of an underground city map, and stores a tourist map and an underground city map that are not stored in the storage device 11 in the area around the destination in the detailed map acquisition support process. May be downloaded and stored in the storage device 11 for use by the user.

  In the above embodiment, the road network complexity is registered in advance in the detailed map data presence / absence information, and based on this, the road network complexity of the surrounding area of the guidance route is obtained in step 508 of the detailed map acquisition support process. However, the road network complexity may be obtained based on the map data stored in the storage device 11 in step 508.

  As described above, according to the navigation device 1 according to the present embodiment, the frequency of the left and right turns when the area around the destination, the area where the road network around the guidance route is complex, and the traveling along the guidance route is performed. The user can easily obtain the detailed map data of the detailed map from the detailed map data server 32 for an area that is estimated to have a large need for the detailed map of the user, such as an area around a large section, that is, an area where the route is likely to be erroneous. Will be able to. Further, only when the detailed map data of such an area exists in the detailed map data server 32, the detailed map data acquisition proposal and the access to the detailed map data server 32 are performed, so that the user is inconvenienced. In addition, it is possible to efficiently acquire detailed map data that eliminates unnecessary communication with the detailed map data server 32.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the information system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the navigation apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the detailed map data presence information and detailed map data management information which concern on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of a display screen of the navigation apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the detailed map data acquisition assistance process which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of a display screen of the navigation apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Navigation apparatus, 2 ... WAN, 3 ... Map data provision system, 6 ... Control part, 10 ... Control apparatus, 11 ... Memory | storage device, 12 ... Current state calculation part, 13 ... GUI control part, 14 ... Route search part, DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 15 ... Memory, 17 ... Guide image generation part, 18 ... Communication control part, 21 ... Operation part, 22 ... Display apparatus, 23 ... Vehicle state sensor, 24 ... GPS receiver, 25 ... Wireless communication apparatus, 31 ... Detailed map database 32 ... Detailed map data server 401 ... Map image 402 ... Current position mark 403 ... Route figure 404 ... Destination mark

Claims (4)

A navigation device mounted on a car,
A storage device storing map data representing a map;
Detailed map data representing a detailed map, which is a more detailed map than the map represented by the map data, is downloaded from the detailed map data server storing the detailed map data via wireless communication and stored in the storage device Download means,
Search means for searching the route to the destination set by the user as a guide route;
Detailed map acquisition control means for controlling acquisition of the detailed map data using the detailed map data download means,
The storage device stores, for each area, detailed map data presence / absence information indicating whether the detailed map data of the area is accumulated in the detailed map data server,
The detailed map acquisition control means indicates that the road network around the guidance route is a complex area, and the detailed map data presence / absence information indicates that the detailed map data of the area is stored in the detailed map data server. When the user is inquired about the necessity of obtaining detailed map data for the area, and when the user gives an instruction to obtain the detailed map data , the detailed map data for the area is downloaded from the detailed map data server and the storage device The detailed map data download means is made to execute storage to the navigation device. A navigation device mounted on a car,
A storage device storing map data representing a map;
Detailed map data representing a detailed map, which is a more detailed map than the map represented by the map data, is downloaded from the detailed map data server storing the detailed map data via wireless communication and stored in the storage device Download means,
Search means for searching the route to the destination set by the user as a guide route;
Detailed map acquisition control means for controlling acquisition of the detailed map data using the detailed map data download means,
The detailed map acquisition control means is an area around a section where the right / left turn frequency is high when traveling along the guidance route of the guidance route, and the detailed map data of the area is the detailed map data server The detailed map data stored in the area is inquired of the user about the necessity of acquisition of the detailed map data. A navigation device that causes the detailed map data download means to execute storage in the storage device. The navigation device according to claim 1 or 2,
The detailed map acquisition control means displays an image showing the area on the map represented by the map data when inquiring of the user whether or not the detailed map data of the area needs to be acquired. . 4. An information system comprising the navigation device according to claim 1, 2, or 3, and the detailed map data server.